Paper short abstract:

Ten years after peace was established in Angola, many consequences of the war can still be found. This study´s purpose is to verify if there is a relationship between the trauma, caused by the thirty years of civil war in Angola, and religiousness.

Paper long abstract:

Ten years after peace was established in Angola, many consequences of the war can still be found. The displaced populations who suffered directly from the armed violence were the most affected. Due to the war, the religious phenomenon has increased considerably all over the country, and there has been an explosion of new churches, besides the traditional ones.

This study´s purpose is to verify if there is a relationship between the trauma, caused by the thirty years of civil war in Angola, and religiousness.

The results indicate a relationship between the level of symptomatology of PTSD (trauma) and the level of religiousness, as well as between the reasons for displacement (war and others) and religiousness: the more traumatized and dislocated people are the ones who show greater religiousness. The results further show a relationship between the reason of displacement and the level of trauma: those displaced because of the war are more traumatized than the others.

Based on these results, we can have to try and understand the meaning of the relationship between trauma and religiousness. Since religion is a factor of preservation of the community and this is in turn a factor of protection of its members, the more religious individuals should be the less traumatized. However, the results show exactly the opposite.

Paper short abstract:

Este estudo é especialmente interessante porque conjuga os conhecimentos de duas especialidades de ciências humanas, a antropologia e a psicologia, tendo por objectivo geral estabelecer conexões entre os impactos psíquicos da violência política e saúde mental.

Paper long abstract:

O estudo baseia-se principalmente num inquérito por uma amostragem de 300 indivíduos dos 18 aos 65 anos de idade, da cidade do Lubango e dos Municípios da Matala e Humpata (zonas rurais). Para a recolha de dados utilizaram-se questionários para medir os estados de ansiedade e depressão. Num segundo momento fizeram-se entrevistas semi-estruturadas para identificar o impacto da violência política das populações alvo de estudo.

Paper short abstract:

A guerra civil em Angola foi desestruturante a vários níveis, inclusive na dos valores morais e das crenças e práticas religiosas. O presente estudo propõe-se analisar este impavto na Província da Huila.

Paper long abstract:

Todo o território da Província da Huíla, inclusive a capital Luibango, foi afectado por períodos de conflito armado. Estes períodos provocaram fortes movimentos de migração - entre zonas ruais, de zonas rurais para zonas peri urbanas e urbanas, e de zonas urbanas para zonas peri urbanas e rurais. Estas saídas de contextos sociais para outros levaram à perda de valores morais estabelecidos nas sociedades de origem e à adaptação aos valores das sociedades de acolhimento. Neste situação, verificou-se um considerável aumento da importância das igrejas já existentes e o aparecimento de muitas comunidades religiosas novas, geralmente pentecostais. No seu conjunto, estas igrejas passaram a ter um papel fundamental na estruturação de novas configurações de valores morais, com diferenças significativas antre as diferentee zonas.

Paper short abstract:

After the independence Angola has gone through a long period of war resulting in a situation of religious, political, economic and social strain. The research intends to analyze the resilience of rural societies in Southern Angola, in particular of Humpata.

Paper long abstract:

The discussion is framed around the civil war period that took place in the post- independence period. The study of the Humpata municipality focuses on aspects of social resilience of the population of the Muila ethnic group.

This part of the research centered on social dynamics understood as constraints, as well as on the different family lineages dynamics constructed by the rural populations to enable their survival in the presence of new actors in their territory. The study contemplates the analysis of foreign military presence in the Humpata, namely the Cuban troops, the troops of the Namibian movement SWAPO, and South African troops. We also make reference to other populations that settled in the region - people from elsewhere, displaced by the war, whose presence was also a factor of adversity. We analyze the forms of relationship between the different foreign troops and local populations, as well as between the latter and the displaced persons - their reciprocal influence, coming from the multiple exchanges that took place in this particular context. The different constraints have sometimes produced disparate configurations. These populations have sought, through the interaction with the new social actors, to develop strategies of maximizing the opportunities offered by the context. It resorts to qualitative research methods privileged in the areas of sociology and anthropology. It is a case study which gives priority to empirical results, highlighting the fact that in an adverse context the Humpata rural populations managed to prevent collapse.

Key Words: Social Resilience, Rural Populations, War, Angola

Paper short abstract:

Underplayed when not outrightly denied in the literature is the significant cohesion UNITA exhibited till the end of the Angolan civil war. Based on fieldwork amongst ex-combatants, the paper tries to account for this cohesion.

Paper long abstract:

UNITA is one of the prototypical resource-motivated, opportunistic type of rebellion inhabiting the popular imaginary about African conflicts and also much of the conflict analysis literature. Underplayed when not outrightly denied is the significant cohesion the movement exhibited till the end of the Angolan civil war.

The paper tries to account for this cohesion. Based on fieldwork amongst ex -UNITA combatants, I bring to the fore the topic of suffering as the loci of their narratives about their participation in the war. These challenge simplistic assumptions about material incentives as the basis for loyalty (or lack of it). Differently from the alternative focus on the grievances pre-dating the war and its root causes, I concentrate instead on the dynamics generated by the war itself. In particular, I argue the combatants' experience of suffering during the war generated new solidarities that can help us account for the movement's resilience. Through the interviews we explore how this experience was ultimately social and shaped out of the clash of competing representations of suffering in which the war itself translated.

Besides the more commonly underlined "internal" mechanisms for generating loyalty, the paper then proposes a relational approach that brings the government to bear on rebel cohesion.

Paper short abstract:

o artigo explora a relação entre as promessas do posconflicto, representadas na actuação do Estado, e a emergência de um grupo de indivíduos cujas características não são distantes das dos antigos indígenas.

Paper long abstract:

O fim da guerra civil em Angola, em 2002, desanuviou o clima de extrema violência em que o país esteve mergulhado e, no contexto das promessas do posconflicto, iniciou-se um processo de, entre outros, reinstitucionalização de áreas sociais e políticas até então à margem ou com fraco controlo do Estado que implica interfere, em muitos casos, no quotidiano dos indivíduos e grupos sociais. Um exemplo concreto é a actualização e extensão do Estatuto de cidadania pela concessão do Bilhete de Identidade Nacional, para os adultos, e Cédula Pessoal para as crianças. A aquisição do Estatuto requer prova documental de angolanidade caucionada por uma autoridade. A ausência de prova - em decorrência da guerra civil e, em alguns casos, da situação colonial - dificulta ou impossibilita essa aquisição.

Este artigo tenta captar a reacção dos indivíduos a este constrangimento e os resultados específicos que dai decorrem; explora a relação entre as promessas do posconflicto, representadas na actuação do Estado, e a emergência de um grupo de indivíduos cujas características não são distantes das dos antigos indígenas; até ponto é que a emergência deste grupo é uma forma de lidar com as promessas do posconflicto e como pode ser inserido no processo de reconfiguração social posconflicto. A análise é baseada em dados recolhido em entrevistas e observação em trabalho de campo realizado em Angola desde 2007, em Benguela, Luanda, Huambo e Lubango e, em menor quantidade, em Saurimo, Uige e Mbanza-Congo.

Paper short abstract:

The communication presents the perceptions of the armed conflict and post-war experiences of women who joined the ranks of UNITA military during civil war in Angola. Their testimonies evidences perceptions not always linear among contexts considered adverse vs favorable at the aftermath of civil war.

Paper long abstract:

This communication presents the perceptions of the armed conflict and post-war experiences of women who joined the ranks of UNITA military during the civil war in Angola. Their testimonies reveal particulars about social components, ideological and political-military organization of the guerrilla; exalt the role that a woman took, the difficulties they faced during the conflict and in the process of reintegration with the end of military conflict.

Data collection was made following a qualitative research conducted in Luanda, between 2006 and 2007, about the processes of empowerment of women ex-combatants. New interviews were conducted both in Luanda and Huambo in January 2009, noting the perception of the female ex-combatants returning to urban and rural areas and the prospect of some political leaders, based on life stories.

In these surveys were highlighted controversial feelings that did not meet peacetime and perceptions that characterize a greater access to basic needs during war, compared with levels of extreme poverty experienced in post-war period reintegration process. Rural and urban contexts have also determined different requisites and personal skills to this transition process. The following presentation will expose the different testimonies by the most hidden faces of the civil war, evidencing a relationship that is not always linear between contexts considered adverse versus favorable, through a case study that is part of the interdisciplinary project "Reconciliation and Social Conflict in the Aftermath of large-scale Violence in Southern Africa: the cases of Angola and Namibia."

Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to launch a reflection on the hand of national reconciliation and collective memory in Angola after the end of the long armed conflict.

Paper long abstract:

The paper proposes to approach the main steps in the process of unity and national reconciliation in Angola, seeking to understand, ten years after the end of the long civil war, to what extent such a process represented, in part, the implementation of a policy of collective memory whose meaning up summed in the annulment of the possibility of testimony and social traumas of collective catharsis in favor of a tangential pacification of society.

Paper short abstract:

Colonialism and post-colonialism have in Angolan societies many things in common. One is the creation and, simultaneously, the of social diversities. The paper focuses on this aspect in the perspecgtive of social resilience.

Paper long abstract:

João Milando

Long-term violence and nation-building processes in Angola:

Social resilience in rural areas

Colonialism and post-colonialism have in Angolan societies many things

in common. One is the creation of social diversities. The great

diversity of ethnic, linguistic, territorial and/or cultural

identities in the country is often regarded as a situation which may

hinder the political project of constructing a broad social/national

identity in Angola. However, locally there are some aspects of this

diversity that apparently favor social cohesion and integration

processes. Another characteristic of both colonialism and

post-colonialism is the negation of the existing diversity followed by

efforts to impose cultural "homogeneity". Apparently this denial of

diversity also favor social integration and cohesion. Sometimes in a

contradictory way, certain situations associated to the post-colonial

war contributed apparently to the configuration of cohesive identity

dynamics favoring the "nation building" process in Angola. This paper

analyses different ways in which post-colonial violence affected

"nation building" processes in Angola at the local level. Different

dimensions and expressions of social resilience and (in some way)

social capital are analyzed in specific social groups of agrarian

societies. Special attention is given to forms of sociability and

social interaction in these social groups.

Paper short abstract:

Tendo como referência um estudo de caso no município da Humpata, província da Huíla, o presente paper pretende contribuir de forma específica para o entendimento sobre o processo de recomposição após o conflito armado em Angola.

Paper long abstract:

Estudos empíricos sobre dinâmicas locais em diferentes países africanos, têm evidenciado o papel das autoridades tradicionais para lá do alcance do Estado, mas ao encontro da população, no domínio social, político e da justiça. Tem-se qualificado/conceptualizado a relação entre instituições sobre o processo de descentralização administrativa, analisado construções legais e impactos na natureza da autoridade, tanto estatal como tradicional, induzida pela prática interaccional.

Estudos realizados em e sobre Angola, documentos oficiais, por oficializar, encontros locais e nacionais, evidenciam por um lado o esforço do Estado no reconhecimento/integração das autoridades tradicionais na arquitectura do Estado. Parecem interessar as autoridades tradicionais que respondem às iniciativas do Estado e do partido MPLA, reforçando-os, o que acontece em determinados casos e até certo ponto. Por outro lado, evidencia-se a sua exclusão, ou mesmo diferenciação, onde é profícua a análise do seu desempenho na regulação da vida da comunidade.

Analisados estes aspectos, adicionando percepções e opiniões por parte de representantes do Estado sobre a aplicação da justiça local, interacções normativas e práticas, emergem e qualificam-se pontos críticos que tingem formas lineares de conceptualizar os limites das autoridades tradicionais, as funções/desempenhos do Estado ou mesmo a lei - estatal vs. consuetudinária. Questões relacionadas com o poder, legitimidade e autoridade, normas construídas e validadas localmente explicam uma parte, a prossecução de objectivos, explicam outra.

O interesse reside finalmente na descodificação da informação legal, do discurso público, pela procura da real constituição da autoridade local, situando a resolução de conflitos, o domínio da justiça e a desconcentração administrativa.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to dress a portrait of Luanda’s social distinction in the aftermath of war through the analysis of social mobility in post-conflict context. Political practices continue to structure social marginalization, but peace creates new dynamics favoring the re-composition of social classes.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to dress a portrait of Luanda's social distinction in the aftermath of civil war, through the analysis of social mobility in post-conflict context.

War dynamics have strongly shaped Angolan's post colonial society for nearly three decades. Political practices of social domination continue to structure social marginalization in the post war context. Distribution of political, social and economical power is, to a great extent, constrained by the appropriation of state resources and the development of clientele networks based on MPLA's hegemonic control of power.

Nonetheless, the arrival of peace creates new social dynamics: the return of exiled immigrants, the economical boom, the national reconstruction policies, the growing of formal employment and international investments in the country, the emergence of new commercial and industrial markets, and the reinforcement of civil society, amongst others, are all factors that favor social re-compositions.

Therefore, the end of the armed conflict produces, on one hand, a reconfiguration of power-clientele networks by introducing new actors in the political and economical arena, thus leading to the emergency of a new economical elite. On the other hand, peace (timidly) endows a re-composition of social classes based in the logics of meritocracy. Therefore, those who dispose of social and intellectual resources (mainly favored by their families' background and exile experience) succeed in bypassing cooptation, political affiliation and clientele networks.

This paper will analyse those changes based on empirical research field accomplished in Luanda between 2009 and 2012.

Paper short abstract:

Ethnic association in Angola maintains networks of migration and interaction which the Ovimbundu use for social advancement, but also to escape state exclusion at the local level. Tribalism and regionalism, although dormant, are still common concepts to popular perception of other groups in Angola.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to bring back to the academic foreground issues relating to post-war ethnicity in Angola. Contrary to the belief that Angola does not exhibit signs of ethnic discomfort, as an integral part of a PhD investigation, the paper brings to light issues commonly referred to as "tribalism" and "regionalism", in an attempt to decode the ethnic relations between the Ovimbundu, the various groups and the state.

Focusing on the Ovimbundu, the largest ethnic group in the country, the article puts forward the idea that non-Ovimbundu people tend to associate this group with a very specific region, the centre, and with a political party, UNITA, which often leads to political and economic exclusion for those who speak Umbundu, especially when relating to the state on the local level. This presumption seems to be foreign to Ovimbundu thought and behaviour, as the group's cultural borders appear to be extremely porous and inclusive of other ethnic groups, a fact verifiable by the commonality of marital exogamy and constant migration and integration.

To be sure, there exists no ethnic Ovimbundu party in Angola today. Scattered across many political realms, the Ovimbundu in general, not their elites, appear to attempt to survive in a sea of economic and social chaos, obliging them to search for social advancement within their own ethnic networks, especially in terms of job migration.

The paper will be based upon field research conducted in Angola between January and April 2013, in the provinces of Huambo, Bié and Luanda.

Paper short abstract:

Para alguém familiarizado com Angola, é de princípio evidente que os conflitos violentos que ocorreram naquele país, durante algumas décadas, foram um ralador ou em menor grau enraizados nas identidades sociais, especialmente nas étnicas, religiosas, regionais, e socioeconómica.

Paper long abstract:

A estrutura e dinâmica de uma sociedade não pode ser compreendida exclusivamente a nível das práticas dos atores sociais que engloba.

Neste contexto, a questão das identidades sociais é de especial importância. De acordo com uma tradição partilhada pela sociologia e psicologia social, este conceito não é usado aqui no sentido de características de sociedades ou grupos sociais. Em vez disso, refere-se ao facto de as pessoas conceberem a si, no seu pensamento e sentimento, como pertencentes a uma variedade de categorias sociais "construídas" pelo seu próprio pensamento social.

A construção das identidades sociais faz-se num contexto relacional onde as propriedades dos grupos e as respectivas auto-imagens resultam de um processo de interacção e de recíprocas comparações e categorizações sociais. Uma vez que Angola atravessou um período de guerra longo, com a circulação de pessoas de região para região e, em consequência, a incorporação de povos e culturas, é evidente que esse cruzamento influenciou a forma como as pessoas actualmente encaram as suas identidades sociais. As identidades são um conceito relacional, constrói-se e alteram-se a partir da relação com o outro e de acordo com aquilo que são as expectativas que o outro tem de nós enquanto elementos pertencentes a um dado grupo, num dado momento. As identidades são portanto, temporais e contextuais. (Gay, 1997).